Big East split: St. John's, Seton Hall among 7 basketball schools officially leaving

Founding conference members St. John's and Seton Hall are two of the seven basketball schools voting unanimously to leave the Big East Conference on Saturday.

St. John's, Seton Hall expected to leave Big East Conference, per report

The Big East's seven catholic schools will announce their future to Big East in next 24-48 hours.

St. John's, Seton Hall will not be required to pay Big East Conference exit fee, per report

If the St. John's Red Storm and Seton Hall Pirates men's basketball programs decided to dissolve from the Big East Conference they would not be forced to play the league's $10 million exit fee, Mark Blaudschun of AJerseyGuy.com is reporting.

According to Blaudschun the rule was put in place when the league's first round of realignment took place and stipulates:

should the football or basketball segments of the league want to break away as a group no exit fees will be imposed. Schools leaving the Big East on an individual basis have had to pay between $5 and $17 million.

If this is true it would be huge for the seven Catholic, basketball-only schools that are thinking about splitting away from the Big East and creating a new conference.

What is also interesting, according to Blaudschun, is the teams maybe able to keep the Big East brand name and the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.

However, if some basketball-only schools are looking to leave the Big East they may chose to join The Atlantic 10 Conference, which is looking to expand to possibly 21 teams according to a report by ESPN's Andy Katz.

St. John's, Seton Hall discuss leaving Big East Conference, per report

St. John's and Seton Hall were two of seven Big East Conference non-FBS schools to meet with commissioner Mike Aresco Sunday to talk about dissolving the league.